This is not your grandmother's umbrella.
Video screenshot by Amanda Kooser/CNET

Pop quiz. You have 12 piezo sensors, Arduino Uno, two speakers, lots of wire, and plenty of duct tape. There is an umbrella nearby. What do you make? How about a musical umbrella that translates raindrops into song?

Take a peek under the hood. (Click to enlarge.)
Alice Zappe

Two creative Germans, Alice Zappe and Julia Lager, built an umbrella that detects raindrops and interprets them as 8-bit music. This could turn a regular walk down the street into a personalized retro gaming adventure.

The project was designed for Music Hack Day in Amsterdam, a weekend full of music-related hacking projects.

Piezo sensors on the underside of the umbrella detect when a raindrop falls and then generate beeping 8-bit tones. Give it a full rain storm and you get some frantic musical tinkling that would sound right at home in an early Mario game.

The creators may have tested the umbrella prototype using a watering can, but they note it also works just fine with beer. Keep that in mind the next time your have a keg and an 8-bit music-playing umbrella together in the same place.

About the author

Freelance writer Amanda C. Kooser covers gadgets and tech news with a twist for CNET's Crave blog. When not wallowing in weird gadgets and iPad apps for cats, she can be found tinkering with her 1956 DeSoto.
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